Beauty & Style

Happy October Birthday to ...

Natalie Merchant, Penny Marshall and other celebs who will turn 50, 60 and 70 this month

by Christina Ianzito, October 1, 2013|

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50: Mark McGwire

En español | OCT. 1: He hit a record-breaking 70 home runs with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998 and later admitted to steroid use, but has insisted that his stunning stat wasn’t drug-induced. (“I was given this gift by the man upstairs.”) Big Mac’s now a hitting coach for the L.A. Dodgers.

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50: Elisabeth Shue

OCT. 6: She was Ralph Macchio’s pretty pal in 1984’s The Karate Kid, and later an Oscar nominee for her grim role in Leaving Las Vegas. These days Shue, who has a BA in political science from Harvard, is on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a “blood spatter expert.”

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50: Norm MacDonald

OCT. 17: One of the many Saturday Night Live graduates who went on to not-so-big things, he’s best known as SNL’s Weekend Update anchor in the mid-’90s — yet he has 415,900 Twitter followers. (Sample Tweet: “Daylight Savings Time. Ha!!!! I give it six months.”)

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50: Brian Boitano

OCT. 22: The 1988 Olympic champion skater has a real sense of humor, which surely helped when the 1999 South Park movie included the mocking song “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” Now he has a Food Network show called What Would Brian Boitano Make?

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50: Natalie Merchant

OCT. 26: She was the gentle-voiced singer with the ’80s folk-pop band 10,000 Maniacs before releasing her mega-hit album, Tigerlily (“Jealousy,” “Carnival”) in 1995. She’s now performing her latest poetry-inspired songs on a concert tour that includes Carnegie Hall in April.

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50: Dermot Mulroney

OCT. 31: Known for his rom-com roles (My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Wedding Date) Mulroney is set to star in two edgy thrillers in 2014, Sacrifice and Careful What You Wish For. An accomplished cellist, he plays with his brother in a band called Cranky George.

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60: Tony Shalhoub

OCT. 9: Born in Wisconsin to Lebanese parents, his first big TV role was as an Italian cabbie onthe sitcom Wings, his second as an obsessive detective on Monk. He costars in CBS’s possibly short-lived comedy We Are Men, about four single guys and their romantic mishaps.

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60: Tito Jackson

OCT. 15: The third of the nine Jackson kids and one of the famed Jackson 5, he just wrapped up the Unity Tour with brothers Randy and Jermaine. (Their first tour as The Jacksons since Michael died in 2009.) His sons, Toriano, T.J. and Taryll, are in an R&B band called 3T.

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60: Lauren Tewes

OCT. 26: She was the lovely cruise director Julie McCoy on The Love Boat (1977-87), but after her cocaine addiction got her booted from the boat, her career never recovered. She’s now based in Seattle, acting in regional theater and using her birth name, Cynthia.

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70: Oliver North

OCT. 7: The ex-Marine was arrested in 1989, accused of shredding documents relevant to the Iran-Contra Affair, escaped jail time and became a right-wing pundit. His 2012 novel, Heroes Proved, stars an evangelical Christian Marine who saves America from liberal folly.

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70: Chevy Chase

OCT. 8: Born Cornelius Chase, the comedian was in the original Saturday Night Live cast in 1975, then in silly comedies including Caddy Shack and the Vacation flicks. More recently he played moist-towelette tycoon Pierce Hawthorne on the NBC series Community.

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70: Penny Marshall

OCT. 15: Marshall became a TV star as Laverne De Fazio, a brewery bottlecapper on Laverne & Shirley (1976-83). Then she began a career as a director (Big, Awakenings). The actress called her super-frank 2012 memoir My Mother Was Nuts, though she admitted, "I was nuts, too."

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70: Catherine Deneuve

OCT. 22: She's the elegant Parisian actress of Belle de Jour (1967) fame, nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Idochine in 1992. Very French, with cigarette often in hand (she says she's tried to quit), Deneuve has declared, "Love is suffering. One side always loves more."